On a group of Psittacidce known to the Ancients. 57 



itself, we might venture to subjoin another species of Dr. Latham, 

 his PsiL Narcissus^ or Jonquil Parrakeet^^ to the foregoing list of 

 species. Whether that bird be a distinct species, or merely a 

 variety of some other, the representation of it exhibits all the 

 striking characters both in form and colour of the genus before 

 us ; the compact head, the slender, delicate, and graceful body ; 

 the elongated tail, the collar that encircles the neck, the dark red 

 spot on the shoulder — in short all the exteriour indications of this 

 beautiful group. Dr. Latham described his species from a single 

 specimen which was alive in the neighbourhood of London : of 

 this unfortunately all trace, as far as I can understand, is now 

 lost, and no second specimen has appeared to throw light upon 

 the subject. It strikes me that the bird was a variety of one of 

 the species enumerated above, most probably of the Pal. erythro' 

 vephalus or Bengalensis^ with both of which birds it closely ac- 

 cords in the general disposition of the colouring. M. Le Vaillant 

 has well observed, that, in those accidental variations of colour 

 that take place occasionally in the feathered tribes, as well as in 

 the usual changes that accrue in the vegetable world, where black 

 or the other darker colours become white, green invariably changes 

 into yellow. This he infers to be the case in his Perruche souffre^ 

 •which he considers a variety of his Perruche a collier rose^ our 

 Val. torquaius, 1 have myself had an opportunity of observing 

 the uniformity of this mode of variation in a few instances among 

 the Psittacidce ; but more particularly in a specimen of the Pla- 

 tycercus scapulatus^ or King's Parrakeet^ of New Holland, which 

 ^as for some time alive in this country. The whole of this bird 

 was yellow, with the exception of the head and under body, and 

 the scapular /«^c/«, the former of which retained their red, and 

 the latter its ultramarine colour, while the original green had be- 

 come a decided yellow. If we examine Palwornis erythrocepJia' 

 lus or Bengalensis^ and imagine to ourselves the mode in which 

 either would be likely to vary, we can easily conceive that the green 

 colouring of the wings, body, and tail, may fade into a lemon on 

 jonquil yellow, the black colour round the neck become white, 

 according to the general law of variation, while the roseate crim- 

 * Gen. Syn. Sup. II. p. 83. lab. 123.— Vol. II. p. 143. tab. 23. Ed. 2'^\ 



